Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Streaming Anyone moved from Sonus to Sooloos

As the Sooloos system is maturing to a point that the Control 15 on the main system and a MS600, iPad, DSP 3100 as a secondary system is now potentially a viable system, I need to decide whether the financial outlay is worth it as compared to my Sonus.

The 3 main area of upgrade as I see it are

1 Sooloos interface
2 2 Channel DVD-A on server
3 Sound quality

It is item 3 that I am looking for feedback from anyone who has made the jump from sonus to Sooloos.

thanks

David

David,

I'm in the process of moving 2 of my Sonos zones over to Sooloos (Lounge and AV system), but planning to leave my other 6 zones as Sonos.

I would have to agree, the main reason for upgrading are the same as yours, the Sooloos interface is excellent and very fast plus the support for Hi-Res music. The ripping of CD`s is also very slick. I've got the Control:10 fed via a HD621 so cannot compare directly against the sound quality of the Control:15 - but it does sound very good.

The iPhone app is not as good as the Sonos touchscreen remote but it`s is getting there. (Not tried the iPad app yet)

I`m guessing that you already have your CD`s ripped and will import them on to the Sooloos using Control:PC? I`ve loaded 700 disks so far (from approx. 2,800) and it`s taking a very long time; also the software is terrible at identifying albums with more than 1 disk and even worst on albums with multiple artists that it does not find in the meta database.
I`m still working out the best way of sharing the library from Sooloos with my existing Sonos setup! The problem is Sooloos does not understand ‘Album Artist` or the ability to assign an artist to a track rather than the whole CD. (still waiting for a response form HQ on this one)

How many CD's are you looking to move across?

Duncs

Hi Duncs
As a follow on, how does Sooloos deal with a Compilation CD with e.g 20 Songs from 20 Different Artists???

I thought one of the advantages of the Sooloos system was its AMG database integration

I assume when you say that you have "loaded" 700 CD's, what you mean is that you have tried to copy / import the (Apple or FLAC) Lossless Tracks from 700 Albums across to the Sooloos Database???

Oh - that's a bit of a shocker. I currently use lossy files on SB, but am currently going through my whole collection ripping them accurately to lossless FLAC with dBpoweramp. The plan then is to run several zones with SB Touch, but ultimately to migrate the main zone to Sooloos (Ensemble, iPad and ID40/808.3). However, I assumed importing the FLAC files to Sooloos would be a doddle. I didn't realise Sooloos doesn't support album artist. That is my main way of sorting by composer for classical, and band or singer for other genres. I'm certainly not going to re-rip everything with Sooloos, so just how bad is this import problem, and has anyone else experienced it?

I have about 400 CD's ripped via itunes into Apple lossless (with checking enabled) but was probabaly going to redo the process on the basis that the Sooloos would be better at finding all the metadata, album covers etc, my current rips are a bit of an assortment in how compilations etc are sorted. As others do, I use album artist so a bit worrying re Sooloos.

Is the Sooloos inhouse ripping the best there is or does dBpoweramp have any advantages.

Also have about 50 DVD-A to rip in 2 channel, this is one of the major benefits over the Sonus. I might be pushing the storage on the control 15 a bit, does any one have a rough rule of thumb as to how many CD's is equal to the storage of 1, 2 channel DVD-A.

If storage might be an issue then I may wait for a new Ensemble which I assume will be coming soon and will have the same guts as the control 15 + TwinStore but without the interface. Has anyone yet had the chance to compare the iPad experience versus the full Sooloos interface. I don't tend to use spotify etc or have a vast collection so some of the benefits of the interface may be lost on me.

I am also going to continue to use the Sonus for the rest of the house so will need to find the best way of doing this. Under Sooloos I beleive that you can also keep a duplicate MP3 for ipods etc, don't know if the resolution of this can be controlled to a higher level lossy format. Given the Sonus will only be playing via zone players, the quality would probabaly be OK.

I am assuming that apart from the CD track the SACD's will still have to play via the Oppo.

regards

David

DVD-As are rippable outside of Sooloos and playable on an SB Touch at 24/96. Must say I'm mystified about the value of Sooloos.

It does indeed sound a bit strange.

Isn't there a field for "composer" for classical CDs?

I don't have a rule of thumb, but for example, (all FLAC'd -8)

"The Flaming Lips","Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots"
2 channel 16bit 44.1 kHz, 340 MB
2 channel 24bit 96 kHz, 1.09 GB
5.1 channel 24bit 96 kHz, 2.51 GB

so, in this case, about 3 CDs to one DVD-A. Of course, listening to Yoshimi in 2 channel is a bit like watching Avatar in 2D.

With regards to a Compilation CD, it's not that good with regards to meta data.

So, example 'Now 73'

The Album name is: Now 73
The Artist is: Various Artists
Each track only stores it's Title, so track 1: Poker Face

Now the way around this, AMG (FOR SOME DISCS) gives the Track name as follows: Poker Face - Lady Gaga

So the Artist of a track is added to the track title.

So when it is exported for use with Sonos, you loose the ability to search by artist on Compilation (unless you search for the artist in the track title!)

Does that make sense?

To make matters worst, lots of various CD's from AMG do not have artist in the track title. Also very annoying that it ignores the artist information from the imported disk as well!

The import process ignores album art that is in the file and uses a 200x200 image for AMG, unless you have a separate jpg stored with the album.

HI Duncs
Many thanks for the feedback

I too have a whole house Sonos system, with Sonos relying on the iTunes Database of Music originally ripped (mostly thru EAC, lately dBpoweramp)

I've been tempted by the Sooloos for my main Music room only, but I've been hesitant at the possibility of having to maintain the iTunes Database for the rest of the House (as well as Car and iTouch etc) as well as having to maintain a SEPARATE Music Database for Sooloos.

As we all know, this can be very time consuming, so having to do it twice was not very appealing. I've been wondering how Sooloos would cope with an Import from an iTunes or similar database and the answers you provide above are "frightening" IMHO

As Display sizes increase, I went to the trouble a long time ago of embedding Artwork in EACH Music file, at a Minimum size of 500 by 500 Pixels. Anything less doesn't look well on the more modern displays e.g. iPad

Sooloos Ignoring the already Embedded Artwork and reverting back to 200 by 200 pixels is inexplicable IMHO. I've always wondered why the Artwork looked poor on the Sooloos "Now Playing" window and now I know why.

As for the fact that Sooloos ignores the Artist Name on the Import of Compilations................defies belief. I can only assume that it DOES import the Artist Name for Single Artist Albums???? (e.g. Highway 61 - Bob Dylan)

ITunes, WMP and most of the other Music Databases were at the same point on Artist Names, Compilations and Album Artwork, about 3-4 years ago. This forced some workarounds to achieve the desired result. However, they have all improved dramatically in the intervening years, with the exception of some Classical CD's which still leave a lot to be desired, but can be worked around using Spare Database fields which are now available

Just my impression based on your comments, but also hours of playing around with a demo Sooloos System, that it just seems behind the times when it comes to the Music Management / Databas / Tagging side

Enthusiasm Dampened!!!

If you rip directly via Sooloos is the artwork still 200 x 200 and does it sort out compilations etc. Think I need to do some tests at dealer

David

David
Just wondering if you had considered the Pure Music Player (Stereophile rave review in August issue), which sits on top of ITunes (which still manages the Tracks, Playlists and Tagging etc.)

Using something like a Mac Mini next to your Meridian Processor, this allows for

a) 24/96 Playback of ripped 2ch DVD-A's and other HD Downloads. It also allows Seamless playback of all Sample and Bit Rates

b) Output over HDMI into your HD621 for Apodizing

c) Allows you to keep your existing iTunes / Sonos structures and minimises Hassle

d) Use of iPad Remote App to control your Music and Track selection

This is what I'm currently looking at. At least until Sooloos catches up to the pack.........on any number of fronts